Tucker out at Fox
Kinda suprising, he was the biggest draw at Fox. I think this is gonna bite Fox in the ass. He was the only reason to even watch Fox IMO. Stock down 4,5 percent as I write this, Rumble stock going up.
I watched him regularly at even though i would take everything everything he says with a huge grain of salt. I think his humor is extremely underrated. He makes me chuckle quite a bit.
I had multiple messages from people this morning about how "this is BS they just want to silence him" despite them knowing damn well I could not care less about Fox or Tucker (though I do appreciate his anti-war stuff).
I agree it's going to hurt their viewership big time (might even knock them of the #1 cable spot) but come on, imagine saying stuff publicly that contributes to your employers settling for nearly $800m and expecting to keep your job. It's not like he needs them at the end of the day, with the numbers he brings if he sets up a podcast or goes full Alex Jones with a production company he'll be raking in tens of millions a year on his own. I also would not be surprised if he signs a deal with either Rumble or The Daily Wire, though I think the latter is less likely given they would be wary of him saying something else that could cost them $$$.
But why just Tucker? So many others on the Fox platform made voter fraud claims but didn't get whacked.
Because he's probably got a reach comparable to the rest of them combined. Worth noting it said in the press release (that I saw anyway) he's not "fired" they've just "chosen to go their separate ways". The action was probably initiated by Fox but I would expect he was already considering leaving on his own, this just gave him the push he needed.
The only problem with your analysis is that (1) Fox has no shame and doesn’t really care about the reputational harm because their audience doesn’t care, (2) they view these costs as part of the cost of doing business or they wouldn’t be in the position where they have to settle/be fined as much as they are, and (3) Tucker’s actions weren’t actually part of the complaint; he was basically “just” some of the best evidence that supported Dominion’s position
What I gave wasn't an analysis, it was complete speculation. Like I said I don't care about Fox or Tucker aside from when he's being anti-war, I don't waste time watching either of them and did not follow any of the Dominion stuff closely. Even if he was just "some" of the evidence, he is far and away their largest personality so him having any involvement would've had an outsized impact compared to anyone else on their roster. I think it's much more likely that he was already looking to leave and this was the excuse they both needed to go separate ways and have some degree of cover/public explanation. He's got to be insanely expensive and cable is only making less and less money, so I think the most likely scenario is he launches his own show soon.
That analysis makes no sense. Tucker Carlson--during the controversy at hand--actually came out on TV and said that Trump's lawyer is a liar (I can't remember her name). You had other hosts at Fox News who pushed the Trump claims without any skepticism, e.g., Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro. It definitely wasn't Tucker Carlson that cost Fox News $800 million. Setting aside the lawsuit itself is absurd on its face--that a media company can be held civilly liable for the claims of fact made by people they're interviewing. Fox News corporate settled to make the issue go away.
I like Tucker and Tomi the best. I wonder where he will go?
Fox and smokin blondes, name a more iconic duo.
The guy got destroyed by Jon Stewart a few year ago and still survived.
He blatantly lied for year on fox and finally one company called him out on it and he gets fired, but he will still survive.
These people (rush, tucker, jones) are like cockroaches. They will always survive. There will always be an audience for hate, people love to hate. It allows them to take the focus off of their shortcomings and focus their frustrations on others.
Even among this crowd, which theoretically should be smarter and better educated than the average American, most of the comments towards tucker and Fox News range from enjoyable to mildly indifferent.
So of course uneducated, middle white america is going to love this guy and follow him wherever he goes. I read during the alex jones trial just how much he makes a year. Pushing dangerous conspiracies to the ultra right is lucrative business. This won’t stop tucker. I wish it would and I wish he could somehow be held financially liable for his election lies, but he won’t be.
A few years ago? That was 2004–so 19 years ago. And Stewart turned out to be totally wrong. That was the beginning of the end for policy debate on cable news. Since then, cable news has totally retreated to the echo chamber. Stewart helped destroy rational debate. Congrats?
Yeah, you sound like a super loving guy. “They’re cockroaches.”
Carlson disputed Trump’s election claims. He was one of the few Fox hosts to actually push back against Trump. You’re calling Carlson a liar while purposely or negligently lying about the actual facts.
Well, now the next time Fox instructs its editorial staff to knowingly lie, they can at least sleep easy that one of the people they know will call that out in writing won't actually be there.
The Murdoch family has made an insanely huge amount of money by feeding a gullible viewership base a stream of "opinions" that validate what they want to hear. Tucker Carlson is a big enough presence in his own right that he probably no longer wants to be beholden to pushing someone else's narrative for a variety of reasons; he no longer needs Fox. Settlement or no, the Dominion lawsuit and other related ones (like the MyPillow guy) have to have right wing media personalities a little concerned; if they're to be held liable for defaming people or companies on air, then all of a sudden obeying an order from on high to push a particular narrative is a lot more fraught than it was the last time Fox got sued for this, when they claimed that only an idiot would think their reporting was meant to be factual, and won. So yeah, if I'm Mr Carlson, I'm thinking that I might want some assurance that I won't be asked to make a claim that might rebound on me personally, and since he's not an idiot, he knows that is a probably a likelihood. If I'm Fox, I want someone who will toe the party line and say what I want them to. In that light, it's no surprise that both Mr Carlson and Fox are ready to part ways.
This isn't something unique to the right wing media. The left wing media is just as biased, pushing false narratives that affected the outcome of the election, such as the hunter biden laptop story. All of the pundits that said that this was Russian propaganda will not be held liable because we live in an age where the law is unequally applied. There are plenty of other stories that have been pushed by the left wing media, yet have not had the same settlements as this one. Nicholas Sandman is the only story that comes to mind, but it makes me wonder what kind of back room deal was cut.
Oh boy. The cope is strong with this one. By no means am I saying “left wing” media is simply providing the facts but the false comparison between Fox and the “left wing” media demonstrates you are either a liar or you don’t know what you are talking about.
This just isn't true. You know how I know? Because "MSM" are journalistic outlets, and Fox isn't, for one. And, you know, the whole "we got sued for defamation and essentially admitted we lost" thing?
Of course other media outlets have biases, and often those lean liberal. That does not make them equivalent. For one thing, the level of bias doesn't need to be equal. A slightly left leaning media outlet is not the same as Fox. A newspaper which concerns itself with publishing facts is far more admirable, even when it omits or misses some facts, than one which prints lies. Fox is the one printing the lies. So don't give me this absurd "both sides" argument. One side is actively, knowingly lying for profit, and to make things worse, is undermining democratic institutions and norms in the process. I don't think "eroding the foundation of the public's trust in the government" is an acceptable means to make an extra buck. Sorry to break it to you, but MSNBC isn't and never was running around talking about how if Joe Biden doesn't win, the election was a scam.
And this isn't even refutable anymore - we now know it, that Fox was deliberating and mendaciously gutting trust in American public institutions for private gain. The very fact that you're sitting here defending it as "no worse than liberal media" instead of joining in the chorus of outrage tells me a lot about your priorities.
Your opinion is interesting, but I have to pushback on it. As others have pointed out Tucker was already the host who went “out of bounds” with regards to the Fox script. As others pointed out he criticized the election fraud claims and in general has a much more of a populist lean to his show (focuses on economic issues and is anti-war). While the show is obviously Republican leaning, his loyalty to the Republican Party is far from unwavering especially towards the establishment and he has no regrets analyzing their bad policy, which is far from par for the course at Fox. This isn’t to say he doesn’t have some crazy views or doesn’t have a spin, but it’s to say that he isn’t toeing the typical Fox line of getting people angry over some random social issue or “Democrat bad, Republican good.” Tucker would be the host who would blow off requests to tell lies that could have hosts in big legal trouble.
Even if we view this as Tucker seeing a sinking ship or Fox veering far into conspiracy land, it doesn’t make much sense that Tucker would voluntarily leave now. The Dominion lawsuit has been known for quite some time. It would have made sense for Tucker to leave a few years back rather than now if that line of reasoning held true.
My take on this is that Fox hasn’t really ever liked Tucker and that resentment grew in the most recent years, but due to his popularity they couldn’t arbitrarily fire him or can him without angering the rest of their viewership base. The Dominion settlement serves as a perfect cover to let him go if he refused in the future to toe the line for them.
He fell in line on the election fraud stuff pretty darn quickly, as I recall. Hedging around the edges a little isn't exactly the height of integrity, and that was essentially what his criticism was. "The system is rigged and unfair and there was fraud, but maybe not enough to sway the election." "The software is bad and causes lots of problems, but we don't know exactly what kinds of problems".
But, he didn't? A year ago you could have reasonably claimed this. But we now have evidence, in his own hand (so to speak), that he thought all of this was a crock of shit and yet didn't feel willing or able to express that publicly. So clearly to a large extent, he was willing to toe the party/network line and subordinate his disbelief to push a narrative he knew to be false.
What happens next time, when maybe he's a little less sure but goes ahead anyway?
You may be quite right. My feeling is that the Dominion lawsuit and its aftermath is going to open up the door to a lot more lawsuits being lobbed at Fox, and rightly so. So if you're Mr Carlson, you may be looking at a future filled with lots of financial risk as you're browbeaten into kowtowing to the Murdoch's media strategy. Or, if Fox decides to dial back the outrage machine and report honestly, it might mean falling ratings and reduction of clout. And from the Fox side... well, it sounds like you agree with me.
Honestly, I'm sure it was a large mix of factors that caused a rift. It'll be interesting to see what he does next. If he wants to take his views and express them in a more honest manner than Fox demands, that would be interesting. As little as I care for his kind of populism, many people seem to find it reassuring, so he'll probably have a lot of success playing to that consumer base.
This is 100% a consequence of the settlement. There is absolutely no way Fox willingly lets their best asset leave. It is Fox. They have no shame.
Tucker out, Lemon out. Woke 1, Anti-Woke 1.
Though guessing Tucker made 3x Lemon salary.
20x the salary and 20x the viewership
I know a lot of people that wanted to watch Tucker Carlson but cant name one single person that wanted to watch Don Lemon. CNN saved some good money on salary and hopefully can use it and give new anchors a shot.
Maybe you just surround yourself with people who like Fox News? That anecdote means nothing.
Tucker was a threat to Fox / Con Inc's donor class in a way that nobody else on the network was. They don't want somone pushing populism, they don't want someone pushing a critical examination of American foreign policy, they don't want someone engaging in a critical examination of FBI / CIA activity etc. They want idiots who toe the line while subverting the right in a more favorable direction (i.e. tax cuts for their backers, foreign policy adventurism). They want 24/7 Sean Hannity boomerslop.
We'll see what he does next. He is one of few people in media with the following to stand alone. His show will be missed - nothing else like it on cable news in terms of breadth of viewpoints platformed and he played an important role in pushing large parts of the right away from dead-end 2000s era movement conservatism.
Will be amusing to see if his views change when he's not shackled by Murdoch.
I don’t think his positions will change as much as it will be him being allowed to be even more openly fascist (which I use specifically to refer to Umberto Eco’s 14 factors of fascism) than he already is which is saying something because he doesn’t wear much of a mask now
I don’t think his views will change a lot. I’m sure he threw a few bones toward Murdoch but really due to how high his viewership was he was more or less invincible.
Dominion was the perfect excuse to get rid of him.
He’s probably better off doing his own thing at this point
He should do his own thing. He’s on the few that could command distribution off Fox
It has been rather unsuprising that liberals that are responding in this thread not only seem to get very worked up, but also stick mainly to insulting people with other viewpoints.
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